Bio : Born in Grodno, Belarus, part of the former Soviet Union. Lives and works in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and Berlin, Germany.
Description : The day of German reunification became the beginning of the end of the Palast der Republik in Berlin, not only historically as end of the era of GDR but as well for the building as such. Just prior to German reunification in October 1990, the building was found to be contaminated with asbestos and was closed. The video starts with a Dutch radio programme, which reports the night of 9 November 1989, collected next to the former border between West and East Berlin, Check point Charley and in front of the Palast der Republik. It records the celebration and euphoria of people during that night. The artist tries to imagine the event and re-create a flashback and at the same time showing a contemporary image of the Palast der Republik as a protagonist. From the point of view of the late witness, his memory constructs an aesthetic form in which, the historical events function as a document of a certain character. In resemblance to the audio file the film utilizes these ideas and expands its visual vocabulary by incorporating new meanings that remind us of the temporality and the fragility of that moment in time. The Palast, which by political decision had to withdraw, now reflects the spiritual reality superior to its own limited time.